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It started with a lone spotting: a mysterious Facebook user called Charlie sent in a picture of a peacock at St John’s College to new group Duckbridge – which specialises in cheeky snaps of mallards (this really does exist). “The rest of the university has ducks” he quipped, “in John’s they have peacocks”.

A John’s spokesman told Varsity that the bird emphatically was not theirs: “Apparently it flew in yesterday and then flew away again. It was clearly a stray, so no, not ours”. And that, it would have seemed, was that.

But peacocks are mysterious creatures, and sightings of the unusual bird have stormed social media. Duckbridge have reported an appearance at the maths faculty, whilst students have posted updates of the bird’s movements to Lucy Cavendish – half a mile away. Spotted relaxing and just generally pecking, as most peacocks normally do, not even the most ardent Cambridge bird enthusiast could have predicted the carnage soon to ensue.

PIC: WILL MANSON

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The peacock – who had already visited Fitzwilliam the week earlier, perhaps to scout out the area – found itself seemingly trapped in a courtyard. Forcing its way in to the second floor of student accommodation, it foiled its would-be captors by launching out of the window, shattering the glass and leaving chaos in its wake. Law student Sujina Amin Noor, who caught the great escape on camera, told Varsity that the pesky peacock even pecked the porter. Not a sentence you hear every day. A spokesman from Fitzwilliam lamented to the Cambridge News that the peacock "has not been seen since the weekend", so it is unclear whether the college is safe from further invasions.

So momentous have Fitzwilliam’s students found the occasion that the fowl has been added to the college’s Wikipedia list of notable alumni, listed as the "first peafowl to be admitted to the college (2017), renowned for exhibitionist behaviour".

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The feathered felon has inspired the minds of finalists and freshers, fellows and town-folk, and has started a trend of wildlife invasion. Fitzwilliam has warned its students of snake intrusions into its grounds, warning that although the grass snake, natrix natrix, is not poisonous, it will release a foul-smelling odour from its rear end if picked up.

Dilettante peacocks, spraying snakes; Fitzwilliam is under siege from all sides. Whatever next?